Rick Sternbach
Rick Sternbach was the senior illustrator/ designer for , Star Trek: The Next Generation, the first two seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager. He was also the scenic artist for , providing designs for everything from the Argo shuttle to a Romulan sculpture. He created the designs for several new studio models, including: * Starships ** Academy flight trainer ** Ares IV ** Cardassian ATR-4107 ** Class 2 shuttle ** ** ** Deep Space 9 (with Herman Zimmerman) ** Delta Flyer ** the Egg ** Friendship 1 ** ** ** ''Intrepid''-type escape pod ** Jupiter Station ** MIDAS array ** Millennium Gate ** ''Negh'var'' warship ** ** ** Romulan scout ship ** Talarian observation craft ** Talarian warship ** ** Yridian starship He also was responsible for creating hundreds of props and set pieces, including the mural painting of the Enterprise-D in Picard's ready room. He also developed weaponry, PADDs, tricorders and communicators for Starfleet, Klingon, Romulan, Cardassian, Bajoran, Kazon, Ferengi, and other races. As a big fan of Japanese animation, anime references are often secretly placed in his designs, notably "the Egg", a design borrowed from the Dirty Pair. Together with Michael Okuda, he served as a technical consultant to the script staff, maintaining technical and chronological continuity and inventing scientific terms and technobabble, resulting in internal documents as Star Trek: The Next Generation Writers' Technical Manual and Star Trek: Voyager Technical Manual. In 1980 he created several illustrations for the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology by Stanley and Fred Goldstein. He has also co-written the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual, Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D Blueprints as well as the "Starfleet Technical Database" articles in Star Trek: The Magazine. Sternbach started out making his designs the traditional way, that is in paper and pencil, but acquired skills in CGI modeling as well, turning in design concepts at a later stage both in paper and pencil and rudimentary CGI models. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 12, pp. 94-97) He has been critical of the Production Design of the 2009 film , specifically that of the design of the . He criticized the apparent lack of line of sight for the nacelles to open space, proportions of various sections, and an overall lack of knowledge of how Star Trek technology works. "Perhaps the designers didn't know exactly how the different hardware bits worked". http://trekmovie.com/2008/11/12/big-reaction-to-new-enterprise-new-designer-responds/ While no longer working on Star Trek, Sternbach continues to create futuristic designs for sci-fi productions. He also actively maintained contact with the Star Trek fan-base through Internet blogs like "Trekbbs" and more recently the "Drex Files" by answering questions and explaining his thought processes on his work for Star Trek. Sternbach is also operating a webshop, "intrep74656", through eBay, selling commercialized editions of his work. Star Trek credits * Star Trek films ** - Illustrator (uncredited) ** - Illustrator ** - Scenic Artist * ** Season 1 - Illustrator ** Season 2 - Senior Illustrator ** Season 3 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant (credited only Senior Illustrator until ) ** Season 4 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant ** Season 5 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant ** Season 6 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant ** Season 7 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant * ** Season 1 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant ** Season 2 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant * ** Season 1 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant ** Season 2 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant ** Season 3 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant ** Season 4 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant ** Season 5 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant ** Season 6 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant ** Season 7 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant Star Trek interviews * TNG Season 1 DVD special feature "The Making of a Legend" ("Artistic Design") * TNG Season 3 DVD special feature "Departmental Briefing Year Three" ("Greg Jein: Modelmaker"), interviewed on * TNG Season 4 DVD special feature "Select Historical Data" ("A New Ship Debuts"), interviewed on 27 November 2001 * TNG Season 6 DVD special feature "Mission Overview Year Six" ("Resolving the Cliffhanger"), interviewed on 27 November 2001 * DS9 Season 1 DVD special feature "Deep Space Nine: A Bold Beginning" (interview from ) * DS9 Season 1 DVD special feature "Deep Space Nine Sketchbook" (interview from 7 October 2002) * DS9 Season 2 DVD special feature "Deep Space Nine Sketchbook: Season Two" (interview from 7 October 2002) * DS9 Season 2 DVD special feature "New Station, New Ships" (interview from 7 October 2002) * VOY Season 5 DVD special feature "Ships of the Delta Quadrant" (interview from ) Bibliography * Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology, 1979 – Illustratator * "Enterprise" Flight Manual, 2nd edition, 1979 – Co-illustratator * Star Trek: The Next Generation Writers' Technical Manual, 1989 – Co-illustratator/Co-author * Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual, 1991 – Co-illustratator/Co-author * Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D Blueprints, 1996 – Illustratator/Author * Star Trek: Voyager Technical Manual, 1994 – Co-illustratator/Co-author * Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual, 1998 – Co-author * Anatomy of a Shuttle, Sci-Fi & Fantasy Models International, issue 36, 1999, pp. 29-34 – Illustratator/Author * Designing Tricorders, , , May 1999, pp. 22-25 – Illustratator/Author * Designing the Delta Flyer, , October 2000, pp. 50-55 – Illustratator/Author * Designing the , , November 2000, pp. 20-25 – Illustratator/Author * Designing the USS Voyager, Part 2, , December 2000, pp. 48-53 – Illustratator/Author * Designing the Runabout, , February 2002, pp. 54-59 – Illustratator/Author * Starfleet Technical Database – Author ** " - Design Evolution 2361-2370" - Stardate 38552.76-47132.86 in (May 2002) ** "Klingon Technology - Personal Weapons" - Stardate 56637.32 in (November 2002) ** " - Engineering Report 3.01" - Stardate 56281.43 in (January 2003) ** "Romulan Propulsion - Historical Overview" - Stardate 56178.92 in (February 2003) ** "Aeroshuttle Technology - Engineering Report 4.1" - Stardate 56328.74 in (April 2003) * Designing the , , March 2003, pp. 92-96 – Illustratator/Author * Designing Hirogen Ships, , April 2003, pp. 92-97 – Illustratator/Author * The Official Star Trek The Next Generation: Build the Enterprise NCC-1701-D, 2011 – Co-illustratator/Co-author * Klingon Bird of Prey Owners' Workshop Manual, 2012 – Co-illustratator/Co-author External links * RickSternbach.com - official site * * * 2001 Interview with Rick Sternbach at TrekPlace.com * 2001 Interview with Rick Sternbach at Ex Astris Scientia * 2005 Interview with Rick Sternbach at Forgotten Trek * 2006 Interview with Rick Sternbach at UFP Croatia.com * 2007 Interview with Rick Sternbach at Forgotten Trek * 2007 Interview with Rick Sternbach at Seb's Web Archive * 2009 Interview with Rick Sternbach, Part 1 and Part 2 at Star Trek Prop, Costume & Auction Blog de:Rick Sternbach es:Rick Sternbach Sternbach, Rick Sternbach, Rick Sternbach, Rick Sternbach, Rick